journeying with more joy.

Backstory

Manifestations come with a backstory to the extent that they are needed. Your alignment allows the manifestation; your resistance carves out the story.

It is really quite amazing when you think about how it all works. Maybe ‘how’ is not the right word here, because we’re not discussing the mechanics of the Universe—not how it works, but the way it works. I have seen the Universe thread needles to get us what we desire.

[By the way, I want to credit Frank Butterfield, Paul and the Communion of Light for the first part of that quote: “Manifestations come with a backstory.” A couple of months ago, Frank and I talked about the idea and he told me Paul’s words. The rest came in more clearly for me yesterday, which then inspired this discussion.]

Here’s an odd example from my past. In 1997, I took a trip to Europe and passed through Germany. I saw a car there I had never seen before. I knew it was a VW, from the logo, but had never seen a model in the US that was anything close to that one. I never caught the name, but noticed it again and again. It was nearly time for me to get a new car and that one intrigued me.

Back home, I started considering what I wanted for my next car. At the time, I was driving a 1991 Honda Prelude. It was cute and sporty, but didn’t have a ‘real’ back seat, at least not one that sat a normal sized human. Two thoughts remained dominant. I liked the idea of a new version of what I had, except with a larger back seat. And I continued to think about that car in Germany.

Even back in 1997, I was a student of metaphysics and manifestation. I had already deliberately created some very interesting things in my life. So I practiced alignment as I understood it then.

Early in 1998, two things happened. Honda came out with a new Accord Coupe, which to me, exactly satisfied my first thought. It was very much like the Prelude, only bigger and more comfortable.

At the same time, VW came out with the totally redesigned Passat; the car I saw roaming the streets of Germany the year before.

I not only manifested one path; I manifested both! Now it was time to choose.

I first went to the Honda dealer to drive the Accord. It felt exactly as I expected. “This could work,” I thought to myself, “but is this what I want?”

I then went over to VW and checked out the Passat. Interestingly, I saw the 1997 version of the Passat too. It was a car I had never noticed before. I guess I just thought it was a Jetta. Anyway, I test drove the Passat and loved the way it drove.

After the drive, I was talking to the salesman and told him that it was between the Passat and the Accord—something he’d probably heard a dozen times a week. His reply to me was something like this: “The Accord is a good car for sure. They have better tires, but the Passat comes with a full size spare and the Accord only has a donut.”

I’m sure he said a lot more than that, but for some reason, that’s the ‘story’ that stayed with me.

I ended up buying the Passat and was completely happy with it. In October of that year, I took it on a road trip to Southern California.

Before I tell you the most interesting part of the story, I want to share this. I knew, even back then, that the Universe could provide desired manifestations even if it seemed to require years of planning and thousands of people. In those early months with my new car, I thought about that very thing. It felt so magical to have two options show up, at the perfect time, which precisely matched the thoughts I had been thinking.

So, here I am in LA on the morning when I am due to drive back to San Francisco, where I lived at the time. I walk out to my car in the garage at the hotel to load my luggage, and I see it. I have a flat!

Getting a flat is never fun, but I first noted that at least I wasn’t stranded on a street somewhere and wasn’t exactly pressed for time. But it then occurred to me that I did need to drive 6 hours to get home and didn’t really want to deal with tire issues in LA. And that’s when that salesman’s words echoed in my head: “…but the Passat has a full size spare.”

Yes! That’s the answer. I’ll put on the full size spare, drive home, and deal with the flat tire another day.

In my mind, the Universe threaded a needle with that one. I had held, in my mind, two thoughts: my car had less than quality tires, but it had a full size spare. So, the Universe gave me an experience of both…and simultaneously. I would never drive 500+ miles on a donut.

Alignment allows the (desired) manifestation. Resistance carves out the backstory.

If you work for a living, and have resistance to the idea of money coming to you “for free,” then when you do align with more money, you’ll be able to track it back. If your resistance requires you to earn money in order to receive it, then when the money does show up, you’ll realize and remember what you did in the past to earn it.

Backstories include the how, the why, and the when. These are the stories we tell years later when someone asks you, “How did you meet your partner?” or, “What did you do to lose that weight?” or “How did you know to buy that to make all that money?”

The purpose of this post is not so much to point out the way things work, but to discuss the other side of it. So many of us get stuck focusing on other peoples’ backstories. We think their story will work for us. If we follow their actions, then we’ll make that money, find that lover, and lose that weight.

But the backstory is not what allowed the results to happen, it is the story created, which helps us accept the manifestation despite our limiting beliefs. In order for you to get results from someone else’s story, you not only have to align with the results (losing weight for example) but you also have to align with their story (believe in their approach)! If, however, you only focus on aligning with the results you desire (and not the why or how), you’ll save yourself half the effort!!

Yesterday, when I was sitting to meditate, an early version of the phrase above popped in: “Manifestations come with their own backstory.” But that thought also came with a lot more.

Since manifestations come with their own backstory, we don’t have to create them!

I, for one, think about what I want (all of the time), but I also wonder (and worry) how it will get to me. I still have resistance all over the place. I am aligned with having money, but clogged up around income. I have alignment with a sufficient amount of health, but suck around the idea of improvement. It is easy for me to feel appreciation for my life as it is right now, but I wonder and worry about what is next for me and how I’ll get from here to there.

In other words, I spend too much time thinking about things that are not my job. This resistant thought is simply carving and molding the stone around me.

So much of what I desire wants to get through. It is like rain pounding on a metal roof. I hear it and feel it raining down upon me, but I keep noticing that it’s not getting through.

The message my Higher Self was giving to me is to let go of the backstory. Backstories come to the extent that they are needed! In other words, if you let go of wonder and worry, the manifestations will come in more easily.

Today is the last day of 2017. I have to say that this year was a better year than I’ve had in a long stretch of them. Not because the others were so bad…and not because this one was so special. But it was a year of progress and alignment and littered with more moments of joy for no reason than those before.

I suspect some changes are in store for 2018 and I look forward to them. Even recently, I’ve been able to pivot from an experience of strong discomfort to one of ecstatic joy in mere minutes. I am gaining confidence (and momentum) in my ability to do this.

I have learned to stop (or at least lessen) my trying. I don’t push on walls as much as I used to and as a result, they are becoming less hard.

And now, the newest tool in my belt is to let the backstories create themselves. I don’t have to wonder and worry what they will be. The money will come and will find its own way to me. The relationships I desire will too. I don’t have to worry about missing opportunities because I didn’t hear this bit of guidance or the other. I might walk past some open doors, and that is just fine.

2018 will come and will go one day at a time, one moment after the next. Every moment has the potential to show us something beautiful. We might not be in the mood, but if we look around for some beauty, it will be there waiting for us to see it.

Numerologically, 2.0.1.8 adds up to 11, which would otherwise reduce to 2. 2 is about connection. It is us meeting up with our own manifestations…face to face. 11 shows us that illumination and disillusionment are the same thing. When the light (of awareness) comes on, you see your alignment and your resistance laid out before you. So be it.

Notice the backstories. Notice how the Universe shows you where things come from, but then remind yourself that these histories are created just the same as the things or experiences. And let them be what they are. The more you open up to possibilities, the more possibilities will occur.

You don’t have to earn your income. You don’t have to look for your partner. You don’t have to ask for those things and experiences you desire. And you most certainly don’t have to become worthy.

The Universe can create a million dollars just as easily as it can create a penny. Which do you prefer?

In 2018, let the word ‘deserve’ fade away from your vocabulary. Don’t apply it to yourself and don’t apply it to anyone else. You deserve everything you desire, but if you’re thinking in those terms, you’ll likely fall short in your thoughts. So don’t think about what you deserve or how much. Don’t think about how, or when, or why, or where. Notice what you desire. Notice what you like. Notice what you appreciate. Notice that you appreciate. It is time for you to love what you love. That is all.

Celebrate the passing of one year into the next any way that pleases you. Be easy with yourself. And let some (more) of that good stuff in.

Nothing has to be the way that it is. It is not supposed to be anything. It is perfect the way it is because it is the precise culmination of what was focused on before. And it can become anything from here.